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Monday, April 26, 2010

Some Links, Should Travellers to AZ take their Passports?

Menzie Chinn asks if he should (here; news story on the law here; resolution summary here). If you solve the subsequent subgame, I'm sure someone'll get the idea that only stoping people with different skin colors or accents is a violation of civil rights, and that'll mean I should, too.
High-skilled immigrants make the economy go (here); maybe not for long (here).
Governments move to regulate remittances (here); what central bankers think of it (step one: keep better data here); mobile remittances might help keep better data (here).
How do temporary shocks affect modern economies? (Not much - here)
China's real estate bubble? (Economist, here; LA Times, here; Business Week, here) Some excerpts:

Taxi drivers boast of owning multiple flats for investment. (LA Times)

and

"My maid just asked for leave... She's rushing home to buy property. I
suggested she borrow 70% so she could cap the loss." (Business Week)

and
It's somewhat reassuring that buyers are plunking down sizeable downpayments. (Economist)

On #3, two comments: (1) ... for now; and (2) is it? If folks are leveraging 70% on speculation about the value of an asset that has had a historical real appreciation close to zero how much does it matter that they own a meager 30%? Again, you buy a house for the dividends of its use value. Investment value is speculation. and eventually a bubble.

How much is a "Hella"?

Apparently, it's possibly going to be 10^27 (a billion billion billion). (The Economist) The current highest named number is a "yotta" or 10^24.

Some Links, Non-conserving Republicans and Onshoring

Wham-O returns to the USA (Daily Show).
A program in California makes Democrats conserve, and Repulicans anti-conserve (Slate summary, gated original paper here).
Tolerance lowers HIV rates (MR summary here, ungated research paper here).
Trade surplusses are not always good (FE explains how to shrink them).
Chickenomics of Health Care (Krugman)
The State of Macroeconomics (Economist)